Hey guys,
Simple put: strong magnet + flash drive = data corruption? Why and How?
Thanks!
I don’t know that a magnet could actually flip bits in the flash chip itself. I suppose it’s possible that moving a really strong magnet near a flash drive might induce a current in some of the conductors/traces which could damage the chip.
Indeed - which is why I want to how for sure.
Well, I suspect some kinds of non-volatile memory were affected by magnetics.
An ordinary flash memory drive is not vulnerable to damage from a magnetic field:
- The flash drive does not use magnetic fields to store data.
- The voltages induced by a hand-held magnet on a flash drive are too low to damage the circuitry or erase the flash cells. You typically need a magnet moving at a very high speed and/or a coil of some kind to induce a high voltage.
However, if you had a powerful enough magnet, you might be able to mechanically damage components in the flash drive by the force of magnetic attraction, depending on what materials it uses. So I wouldn’t treat them as completely compatible.